I’ve finally finished up a project I have been tinkering with for the last couple of years. Its an infrasonic subwoofer for my little basement theater. ‘Infrasonic’ refers to the frequencies this subwoofer is designed to produce. Normal human hearing extends down to about 20hz, but that isn’t the lower limit of what we can experience.

Very high amplitude infrasound is produced naturally by things like earthquakes and very powerful storms like tornadoes and hurricanes. We don’t really hear them like we do sound, or feel them like we do loud bass in the neighborhood of 80hz, but we do perceive them. They mostly just register as strange sense of dread or as an oppressive weight in the air, like an enormous power or sense of foreboding. Perfect for natural disaster movies and space epics!

The speaker is HUGE. Like, bigger than my refrigerator huge. I’ve been trying to think of a good way to dress it up for a year now, and last fall it hit me that this thing would make an awesome TARDIS.

This project had lots of great maker classic techniques and parts. Woodworking, super cool acoustics, an Arduino and addressable LEDs, CNC laser cut signs, etc… it was a ton of fun. It’s an awesome addition to my little home theater!